Enderson, Tolifson, Dineen, Abner, and Petersons among stat leaders for Benson football team during 2019-20 season

The Benson football team closed out the 2019 season with a 3-7 overall record, winning three of its final five games after starting out 0-5.

The Braves snapped a 30-game losing streak with a 32-12 victory over KMS, Oct. 4, and then won a second-straight game for the first time in many years with a 33-0 shutout of BBE one week later during Homecoming.

Benson, seeded sixth in the Section 4A Tourney, won its first playoff game in seven years with a 35-12 upset win over Upsala-Swanville Area, but the season came to an end a few nights later with a 39-14 loss to second-seeded Mayer Lutheran.

Browerville-Eagle Valley eventually won the section title with a dominating win over Mayer Lutheran.

This was the first year of the new sub-district alignments for Benson.  The Braves had been playing in a mostly-AA sub-district, but moved to the Class A sub-district this year, switching with Kimball Area.

USA and Browerville-EV tied for this year’s Mid State Blue division title with 6-1 records, followed by Parkers Prairie (5-2), KMS (4-3), Royalton (3-4), Long Prairie-GE and Benson (both 2-5), and BBE (0-7).  KMS beat Browerville-EV for its only loss, 14-13, while USA fell to Browerville-EV for its only other loss besides the tournament loss to the Braves.

Seniors lost to graduation from this year’s Benson team are seniors Ross Metz, Will Enderson, Carlos Gonsor, Matthew Tolifson, Jacob Wolter, Mason Abner, and Jacob Fath.

“I would like to thank our fans, school, and community for all the support throughout the season,” coach Adam Foslien said.  “The outpouring of support for Benson football this year was amazing!”.

Benson will now try to have the first winning record in football since 2008 when the team was 5-4.  The Braves did go 5-5 in 2011.

The last conference title was 2003 when Benson went 8-3 overall, losing to Ottertail Central in the section finals at the FargoDome...
 
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